The Queen of Rot

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari)

JakeHarlow

Creature (40)

• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Valentin, Dean of the Vein  ^Flip
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Dina, Soul Steeper
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Fiend Artisan
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Viridian Emissary
• 1x Wight of the Reliquary
• 1x Boggart Trawler  ^Flip
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Honest Rutstein
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Springbloom Druid
• 1x Warren Soultrader
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
• 1x Yavimaya Dryad
• 1x Creakwood Liege
• 1x Erebos, Bleak-Hearted
• 1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
• 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1x Meren of Clan Nel Toth
• 1x Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Krav, the Unredeemed
• 1x Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Beledros Witherbloom
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One

Land (34)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bayou
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Deathcap Glade
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 3x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x High Market
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Nurturing Peatland
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 2x Snow-Covered Forest
• 3x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Underground Mortuary
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Artifact (5)

• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Bolas's Citadel

Commander (1)

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip
• 1x Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip
• 1x Primal Growth
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Journey to Eternity  ^Flip
• 1x Pernicious Deed
• 1x Dictate of Erebos

Instant (2)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Assassin's Trophy

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General

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Maybeboard

Creature (7)

• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Insidious Fungus
• 1x Cankerbloom
• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier

Land (4)

• 1x Haunted Mire
• 1x Hissing Quagmire
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Woodland Chasm

Instant (1)

• 1x Village Rites

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Savra, Queen of the Golgari midrange deck. Non-cEDH, no two-card infinite combos. Reasonably focused.

Updates - September 2022, April 2024 and September 2024 Because I’m Bored At Work

Cards Which Should Be Removed (because they’re kind of “not that good” in here, or banned)

• Mana Crypt: Banned. A controversial ban and maybe it gets unbanned now that WotC dissolved the Commander Rules Committee, but for now it’s out.

• Acidic Slime: Hurts to cut interaction but there are more important cards to run in this slot.

• Caustic Caterpillar: Great card but I would prefer to run another bomb.

• Shriekmaw: A little too conditional, and sorcery speed removal is a little weak anyway. Our Commander generally provides enough removal, I think.

• Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder: Clunky, slow and conditional.

• Hissing Quagmire: I can’t think of many situations where a 2/2 man-land will be useful in a multiplayer format like Commander, where building up your mana base is so important. Mostly this is just going to be an un-fetch-able tap land, and we can do without that.

• Evolutionary Leap: Clunky and too random.

• Woodland Cemetery: Decent land but there are a lot of situations where it comes into play tapped.

• Sadistic Hypnotist: Hurts me to cut this card. It’s a fun card. But being limited to sorcery speed on a sacrifice outlet is a major handicap in a deck like this. Unfortunately, the card is just too conditional.

• Butcher of Malakir: Expensive, easy to remove and redundant with our commander.

• Svogthos, the Restless Tomb: absolute jank, overpriced ability and does not produce colored mana

• Treetop Village: jank, neat printing but not a great include

• Garruk, Cursed Huntsman: technically has synergy but is rather clunky and expensive

• Cavalier of Night: a bit expensive to cast; though it technically has synergy it isn’t really efficient enough

• Dark Confidant: there are more efficient draw engines available in Commander; this card doesn’t draw enough cards often enough and is fragile against removal

• Vraska, Golgari Queen: hurts to cut her because she is on-theme, but again the issue is that she only takes one action per turn, is fragile, not a creature and generally not very efficient in a multiplayer format; her third ability does provide a win condition but it rarely viable or relevant

• Storrev, Devkarin Lich: again, this card is on-theme and very cool, but the truth is that abilities that trigger from combat damage aren’t very efficient or reliable in this deck; his ability can only happen once on each of our turns, returns a creature to our hand instead of the battlefield, and is restricted to cards that didn’t die during that particular combat phase (and it has fewer targets since we are cutting planeswalkers), plus abilities like this are quite vulnerable to interaction; this card would be fun in a combat-themed reanimator Golgari deck, but it is not the best fit here

• In addition to the above, remove 1x Snow-Covered Swamp and 1x Swamp to make room for the third and fourth land cards being added. The total number of lands in the deck will not change.

Cards To Add

Literally the entire maybeboard I previously posted here. They’re just better cards for this deck. Again, we aren’t doing any cEDH combos, so we are absolutely foregoing the “best” card choices. These are still better choices for a “casual but tuned” environment.

• Phyrexian Altar: Hard to believe this wasn’t in here before. It is one of the strongest repeatable sacrifice outlets in the format.

• Beledros Witherbloom: legitimately strong in here, triggers every turn and has a powerful ability which allows us to combo and stay active on opponents’ turns

• Deathcap Glade: dual land which will come into play untapped most of the time; is better than Blooming Marsh for Commander

• Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar: sacrifice outlet which draws multiple cards, plus our deck wants to be playing as many creature permanents as possible

• Three Visits: another copy of Nature's Lore; green decks can easily play both of these

• Undergrowth Stadium: always comes in untapped unless we are playing 1v1 Commander, and I have no idea why that would be any fun anyway

• Underground Mortuary: Fetchable dual land that can place creatures into the graveyard. Useful.

• Valentin, Dean of the Vein  : both sides of this card help us accomplish our game plan; adding relevant tokens to the board for value on the front and giving us another way to win on the back; exiling creatures instead of killing them can be a bit of a non-bo with cards like Rise of the Dark Realms, but sometimes exiling a creature will be preferable

• Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth: another Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth-like effect in our deck, seems silly not to play it since it’s available; also another way to give Cradle and Coffers a mana ability in case they otherwise cannot add any (if we don’t have enough Swamps or creatures in play, respectively)

• Dina, Soul Steeper: cheap, efficient sacrifice outlet in the right colors, has synergy with our commander and offers additional damage potential; if she gets a high power from sacrificing something, we can in turn sacrifice her to a power-dependent effect like Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar to draw a large quantity of cards; in addition she is a cheap, fun and viable alternative commander to use in the event that the play group finds Savra, Queen of the Golgari too boring or oppressive to play against

• Warren Soultrader: Strong new card which is easily one of the best sacrifice outlets in the entire game. Basically a creature version of Phyrexian Altar, but you don’t even need to spend the mana right away — this card should be in every black aristocrats deck

• Wight of the Reliquary: Sac outlet and ramp in one card, can search up any land including Gaia's Cradle

• Boggart Trawler  : Anti-graveyard tech that we can essentially slot in for free because it can also be played as an (untapped) land card. If we have plenty of lands already, we can cast it as a creature and disrupt opponents’ recursion strategies. Recurring it ourselves lets us repeat this effect.

• Honest Rutstein: On-theme recursion similar in strength to Eternal Witness, plus acceleration

• Mwonvuli Acid-Moss: Destroys problematic lands and ramps us; can grab any Forest card as well

• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed: Gives us a lot of recursion, mass removal protection and therefore value, plus it can really help us close out games

• Birthing Pod: Superior to Evolutionary Leap

• Bala Ged Recovery  : It’s often just going to be played as a land, but later in the game it’s kind of the perfect midrange card. Why not run it?

• Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet: Powerful. If we force sacrifices with our commander, he gives us a new black creature to replace the one we just sacrificed. His ability allows us to kill all of our opponents’ nontoken creatures in one turn, as long as we start with at least one other black creature and a free sacrifice outlet.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	2 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	20 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.53
Tokens	Experience Token, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Pest 1/1 BG, Plant 0/1 G, Snake 1/1 B, Treasure, Worm 1/1 BG, Zombie 2/2 B